Let’s go Fly a Kite!
It has been a cold and rainy spring so far up here in boston, and this past weekend May have been the defacto beginning of summer, as we hit a trifecta of sorts here at the roslindale ranch.
First off, I began harvesting the mesclun mix from the garden. That certainly seems like a summery thing–food from the earth in my own backyard. No more going to Whole Foods to buy the stuff in clear plastic tubs shipped in from California or who knows where.
Second thing, on Saturday afternoon Rowan and I went out to fly kites! I flew the swoopy swoopy tiger and Rowan flew the ready steady black cat. This was Rowan’s first real opportunity to fly a kite completely on his own, and he did a great job, discovering and mastering the little flippy flippy wrist motion that let’s the kite go way way way up up up. And then Randi showed up with a picnic lunch that included those mixed greens I had cut from the garden! How much more summery does it get?
And thirdly, we busted out the grill and spent the afternoon in the backyard. There is something about sitting outside at a table in a garden eating corn roasted on the grill, with the house in easy sight, under a big open sky—it just gives a feeling of outdoorness that means summer to me.
Working the Wheel
To celebrate the onset of Summer I thought it would be fun to Work the Wheel, see what would happen if I took a systematic trip through my own wheel of life, truing it one spoke at a time through the Summer to see what I’ve got at the end of August. Funkily enough, this Summer is also host to a rare planetary alignment of Jupiter, Chiron, and Neptune, part of a little dance that Chiron the healer and neptune the mystic are engaged in over the next couple of years.
When Chiron meets Jupiter, some will act their healing purpose on a truly heroic scale, others will party heartier than they ever have before, and they will serve us some of the most useful lessons in non-judgement that we’ve ever had.
Well, that sounds like a beautiful combination to me, especially the part where he talks about “the festival in the meadow…dancing barefoot on wild thyme under the Moon,” so I’ll be acting the part of the party hearty healer for the next twelve weeks, playfully adjusting the spokes of my wheel to get the truest, fastest, smoothest ride possible.
Starting with Food
And I’m going to start right at the start, at the place we all start when we come into this world, totally helpless, defenseless, and dependent on the love and good will of the Mother who brought us here. I’m going to start with food.
Now, I’m not going to go on a diet of mothers milk, yet I am going to spend the next 7 days interacting with food as an offering of pure nourishment from my Mother the Earth. As unprocessed as possible. As close to the Earth as possible. As local as possible. As nourishing as possible.
In fact, I’m going to get this show on the road right now, going outside to harvest a mess of greens to toss with olive oil and balsamic, avocado, strawberries, and pumpkin seeds for my lunch. I may even soak some alfalfa seeds to get some sprouts going. It’ll be a week of beets and apple kale smoothies, of carrot and kale juice straight from my counter top juicer.
Then for the next 12 weeks I’ll recapitulate my life as a growing and individuating human by working the wheel as much as possible in the order we engage it as we grow from little dependent diaper dirtiers all the way to our interdependent figuring-out-how-to-make-a-new-world shiny selves.
Precapitulation
This week food, next week intimacy, the two of which are inextricably linked to the young squirt who came into the world fresh from it’s mama’s womb, and which grow and flourish in increasing physical separation and psychic communication as we grow older. Somewhere in the middle of that I’m sure I’ll have some insights about comfort food, and I’m sure I’ll sure those along the way.
Now…it’s time to grab the clippers and harvest some baby kale, arugula, oak leaf lettuce, red romaine…
{ 0 comments… add one now }